From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'), the warrior monks were anything but peaceful and meditative, and were a formidable enemy, armed with their distinctive, long-bladed naginata. The fortified cathedrals of the Ikko-ikki rivalled Samurai castles, and withstood long sieges. This title follows the daily life, training, motivation and combat experiences of the warrior monks from their first mention in AD 949 through to their suppression by the Shogunate in the years following the Sengoku-jidai period.

Many types of cavalryman are established in the imagination of the British public, but the Ironside retains his place as symbolic of the one occasion when the army took an active role in British politics. One reason is that he represents a unique period when ordinary people displaced the established order to take political control into their own hands. In the 19th century a rash of historical publications, paintings and statues with a civil war theme reflected the political divisions of Victorian society and Royalist and Parliamentarian causes were argued over again, reflecting the subtext of contemporary political struggles. This book attempts to take a wider view of the Ironside as a warrior who evolved from the experiments of the 16th and early 17th centuries to combine firepower with the armoured cavalryman. It reflects his wider service in the Royalist as well as the Parliamentarian armies and beyond the civil wars.

Tank design bureaus first became involved in the development of very heavy tanks after WWI. In addition to the militaries of Germany and England, the Soviet Union was also fascinated by these monsters. Behind it was the concept of transferring the heavy armament of naval warfare to land warfare. These superheavy vehicles were to move across the land the way battleships moved on the sea, and were to be capable of simultaneously defeating enemy forces from any direction. In this follow-up to his highly regarded work on the Panzerkampfwagen "Maus," Michael Froehlich turns his attention to the other superheavy Wehrmacht designs, such as the Grille 17, the Loewe VK 7001, the Raumer S, the Moerser Bar, the E-100 (successor to the Maus), and the 1,100-ton Urling armored howitzer. Froehlich comprehensively describes their development, technology, and testing, and the eventual fate of those vehicles that were built or only projected. Many rare and never-before-published photographs and drawings of the vehicles complement this unique work.

Fighting the People's War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, the core of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War. Drawing on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, Jonathan Fennell fundamentally challenges our understanding of the War and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change. He uncovers how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies and he traces how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the socio-political changes of the postwar era. Fighting the People's War transforms our understanding of how the great battles were won and lost as well as how the postwar societies were forged.

From internationally renowned psychologist Dr. Arnold Lazarus, this book presents simple yet powerful imagery techniques that can help you greatly enhance your quality of life--by harnessing the power of your own mind. Dr. Lazarus draws on decades of research and clinical experience to provide new insights into common psychological problems and practical guidance for overcoming them. Whether used on their own or in conjunction with therapy, the easy-to-learn procedures described in this book have helped countless people:
*Manage fear, anxiety, anger, and depression
*Break free of bad habits, such as smoking and overeating
*Build more pleasurable relationships
*Improve work performance and creativity
*Communicate better and feel more confident
*Overcome tension headaches, insomnia, and more

The epic story of how the Second World War was won.On 4 January 1945, General 'Blood and Guts' Patton confided gloomily to his diary, 'We can still lose the war.' The Nazis were attacking in Eastern France, Luxembourg and Belgium. General Eisenhower's allied armies had lost over 300,000 men in battle (with a similar number of non-battle casualties) and they were still in the same positions they had first captured three months before. Would the German will to resist never be broken? Veteran military historian Charles Whiting assembled individual stories from the frontline as the war entered its last bloody, but ultimately victorious phase. From material such as diaries, interviews and battalion journals he vividly builds up a picture of the soldiers and combatants. As the greatest conflict of them all came to its epic crescendo, those on the ground knew that paths that lead to glory could also lead to death... Perfect for fans of Anthony Beevor, Richard Overy and Damien Lewis.

The Russian T-72 Ural tank is the most widely-deployed main battle tank of the current generation. Used by the armies of the former Warsaw pact and Soviet Union, it has also been exported in large numbers to many of the states in the Middle East. This book reveals the previously secret history behind the tank. Steven J Zaloga examines the conditions under which the T-72 was designed and produced. Technical aspects of the weapon are also discussed, including its EDZ reactive armour which, when it first appeared in December 1984, gave NATO a nasty shock.

Alexander Aitken was an ordinary soldier with an extraordinary mind. The student who enlisted in 1915 was a mathematical genius who could multiply nine-digit numbers in his head. He took a violin with him to Gallipoli (where field telephone wire substituted for an E-string) and practiced Bach on the Western Front. Aitken also loved poetry and knew the Aeneid and Paradise Lost by heart. His powers of memory were dazzling. When a vital roll-book was lost with the dead, he was able to dictate the full name, regimental number, next of kin and address of next of kin for every member of his former platoon-a total of fifty-six men. Everything he saw, he could remember. Aitken began to write about his experiences in 1917 as a wounded out-patient in Dunedin Hospital. Every few years, when the war trauma caught up with him, he revisited the manuscript, which was eventually published as Gallipoli to the Somme in 1963. Aitken writes with a unique combination of restraint, subtlety, and an almost photographic vividness. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature on the strength of this single work-a book recognised by its first reviewers as a literary memoir of the Great War to put alongside those by Graves, Blunden and Sassoon. Long out of print, this is by some distance the most perceptive memoir of the First World War by a New Zealand soldier. For this edition, Alex Calder has written a new introduction, annotated the text, compiled a selection of images, and added a commemorative index identifying the soldiers with whom Aitken served.

The M24 Chaffee was the finest light tank developed by the US during WWII. This tank was developed by Cadillac, which, along with farm equipment manufacturer Massey-Harris, produced the vehicles. These tanks were used by the US during WWII and Korea and, during the post-WWII era, were supplied to numerous allied nations. This book chronicles the development and use of the vehicle from concept to combat. Through dozens of archival photos, many never before published, as well as detailed photographs of some of the finest existent examples of these vehicles, this iconic tank hunter is explored and its history is explained.

Conducted between 27 May and 4 June 1940, Operation Dynamo was the evacuation from Dunkirk of most of the British Expeditionary Force cut off and surrounded during Fall Gelb - phase one of Germany's invasion of France. Despite the impression that British forces had no further presence there until D-Day, this was not the case. From 5 to 18 June 1940, during Fall Rot - phase two of the campaign, several British and Empire infantry and armoured formations and an RAF contingent fought on in France. Two further British and Empire divisions were despatched to be part of a 'Second BEF' but the blitzkrieg advance of the German panzers and mechanised infantry proved unstoppable. Operation Cycle was a further evacuation from Le Havre, though the attempted rescue of the 51st Highland Division from St Valery-en-Caux ended in its surrender. Nevertheless, a rear-guard campaign allowed remaining troops to be evacuated from several ports during Operation Aerial. This book examines an important yet considerably under-appreciated aspect of British participation in the Battle of France. It describes the many desperate struggles against German forces that were overwhelmingly superior in numbers, equipment and flexibility and tactics on the battlefield, by improvised British formations, often of rear echelon and territorial troops. Usually short of arms and ammunition, equipment and organisation, they never lacked courage and determination. This story has been largely overlooked but it deserves to be told and for full acknowledgement to be given to the heroism and the sacrifices made by those who were there.

As World War II in Europe reached its end, armour development and doctrine had experienced several years of massively accelerated change, especially within the crucible of the Eastern Front. The German Jagdpanther and Soviet SU-100, both turretless tank-destroyer designs based on a 'traditional' turret-tank chassis, were the culminating examples of how the progression of experience, resources and time constraints produced vehicles that were well suited for roles of defence and offence, respectively. The Jagdpanther represented a well-balanced solution and an excellent use of limited resources, while the SU-100 was a natural progression of the SU-85, where numbers produced compensated for rudimentary construction, poor crew comfort and limited optics.

Several factors delayed and greatly hampered the development of an Italian medium tank during World War II. The first was the strategic stance of the country, focussed on a war against neighbouring countries such as France and Yugoslavia, and ill-prepared for a war in the Western Desert. Since these European countries bordered with Italy in mountainous areas, light tanks were preferred as these were deemed much more suitable for the narrow roads and bridges of the Alps. Furthermore, development was hampered by the limited number of Italian industries, whose production was also heavily fragmented. All these factors delayed the development of the first prototype of an Italian medium tank - the M 11 - which would only appear in 1937 and did not enter production until 1939. Although technically inferior to their German and Allied counterparts in 1941-43, the Italian M tanks proved to be quite effective when used by experienced crews with adequate combat tactics. In fact, their major shortcoming actually proved to be their limited production figures. While production was limited, innovation was not and, between 1941 and 1943, several experiments were carried out on the Italian tanks that produced interesting prototypes such as the anti-aircraft semovente.

In the middle of the arid summer of 1877, a drought year in West Texas, a troop of some forty buffalo soldiers (African American cavalry led by white officers) struck out into the Llano Estacado from Double Lakes, south of modern Lubbock, pursuing a band of Kwahada Comanches who had been raiding homesteads and hunting parties. A group of twenty-two buffalo hunters accompanied the soldiers as guides and allies. Several days later three black soldiers rode into Fort Concho at modern San Angelo and reported that the men and officers of Troop A were missing and presumed dead from thirst. The "Staked Plains Horror," as the Galveston Daily News called it, quickly captured national attention. Although most of the soldiers eventually straggled back into camp, four had died, and others eventually faced court-martial for desertion. The buffalo hunters had ridden off on their own to find water, and the surviving soldiers had lived by drinking the blood of their dead horses and their own urine. A routine army scout had turned into disaster of the worst kind. Although the failed expedition was widely reported at the time, its sparse treatments since then have relied exclusively on the white officers' accounts. Paul Carlson has mined the courts-martial records for testimony of the enlisted men, memories of a white boy who rode with the Indians, and other buried sources to provide the first multifaceted narrative ever published. His gripping account provides not only a fuller version of what happened over those grim eighty-six hours but also a nuanced view of the interaction of soldiers, hunters, settlers, and Indians on the Staked Plains at this poignant moment before the final settling of the Comanches on their reservation in Indian Territory.

From the army of Marc Antony in the 1st century BC, Roman generals hired Oriental heavy armoured cavalry to serve in their military alongside the legions. These troops, both from the northern steppes and the Persian frontiers, continued an ancient tradition of using heavy armour and long lances, and fought in a compact formation for maximum shock effect. They were quite distinct from conventional Roman light cavalry, and they served across the Empire, including in Britain. They became ever more important during the 3rd century wars against Parthia, both to counter their cavalry and to form a mobile strategic reserve.

Displaying these impressive and imposing cavalry units using vivid specially commissioned artwork, this first book in a two part series on Roman Heavy Cavalry examines their use over the Imperial period up to the fall of Western Empire in the 5th century A.D.

This cogent global history traces the evolution of land warfare since the start of the Crimean War. Jeremy Black argues that although it has always been critical to the outcome of conflicts worldwide, land warfare has become undervalued in comparison to air power in modern military thinking. In practice, land warfare was crucial during the American Civil War, the two world wars, and the conflicts of the Cold War. Indeed, the revival of great power confrontation has led to an urgent need to re-examine the entire contemporary period. Looking to the future, the book shows convincingly that we must consider the nature of the military for non-state actors as well for as the major powers. Ultimately, Black contends, there is no substitute for the control over territory provided by boots on the ground.

The book describes the armed forces of Peter the Great in its entirety, and covers in depth old Russian troops and irregulars, as well as Peter's new standing army (guards, infantry, dragoons, elite units and artillery) and his brand-new force(the navy, with sailing ships and galleys, and marines). Besides the staffing, organization and development of troops, the book gives detailed account of uniforms, weapons and other materiel (both conventional and unusual). Training is described using drill manuals and tactical instructions of the period, and fighting methods actually performed on the battlefield are described - based on first-hand accounts and period observations from Russian, Swedish and impartial sources. Pitched battles that often predominate in descriptions of early-18th century warfare are given their due in the book; however, linear tactics on the field were not the only - nor even the main - type of actions during the Great Northern War, so the author goes into details of the sieges, small war actions and riverine, lake and naval combats. The author brings up materials that were unavailable to English-speaking readers and scholars so far, and the book not only contains the author's own research, but is also based on the most recent works of other Russian scholars who specialize in various aspects of the Petrine military history; this makes the book a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Peter the Great's military force during the Great Northern War (1700-1721). The book is supplemented with numerous contemporary prints and paintings, photos of artefacts and recreated uniform kits, as well as specially-commissioned artwork that has been created by an artist who is knowledgeable in details from that period.

The surprise Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979 shocked the international community. The two communist nations had seemed firm political and cultural allies, but the twenty-nine-day border war imposed heavy casualties, ruined urban and agricultural infrastructure, leveled three Vietnamese cities, and catalyzed a decadelong conflict. In this groundbreaking book, Xiaoming Zhang traces the roots of the conflict to the historic relationship between the peoples of China and Vietnam, the ongoing Sino-Soviet dispute, and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's desire to modernize his country. Deng's perceptions of the Soviet Union, combined with his plans for economic and military reform, shaped China's strategic vision. Drawing on newly declassified Chinese documents and memoirs by senior military and civilian figures, Zhang takes readers into the heart of Beijing's decision-making process and illustrates the war's importance for understanding the modern Chinese military, as well as China's role in the Asian-Pacific world today.

This authoritative short volume introduces readers to the Roman army, its structure, tactics, duties and development. One of the most successful fighting forces that the world has seen, the Roman army was inherited by the emperor Augustus who re-organized it and established its legions in military bases, many of which survived to the end of the empire. He and subsequent emperors used it as a formidable tool for expansion. Soon, however, the army became fossilized on its frontiers and changed from a mobile fighting force to a primarily defensive body. Written by a leading authority on the Roman army and the frontiers it defended and expanded, this is an invaluable book for students at school and university level, as well as a handy guide for general readers with an interest in military history, the rise and development and fall of the Roman legions, and the ancient world.

Step into the violent world of the 13th century, where the European states of the Levant battled with Muslim powers for control of Jerusalem. At the cutting edge of the conflict were the elite fighting men of the Crusader and Egyptian armies - the Knights Templar and the Mamluks, respectively. The Templars were the most famous and formidable of the European Military Orders, while the Mamluks were a slave caste whose fighting prowess had elevated them to the point of holding real political power, threatening their Ayyubid masters who relied on them so desperately for military success. This book draws on the latest research to tell the story of three key engagements from the Fifth Crusade to the Seventh Crusade. It reveals the extraordinary ferocity with which these battles were fought, and how the struggle between Templar and Mamluk came to shape the political future of the region.

Despite being the inventor of the tank and responsible for campaign-winning tactics, by the start of the Second World War the United Kingdom had fallen well behind other nations in the design and build of armoured vehicles. Here, William Suttie uncovers the history of tank design from a government perspective and the decisions and failures that led to that state of affairs, and details the formation of the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Chertsey. Known as the Tank Factory, the Chertsey establishment sought to ensure that the United Kingdom became world-leading in the field of military vehicle research and design, and that the British Army would never be underprotected or outgunned again. Drawing on unpublished sources and photographs, this fascinating book reveals the establishment's history, its groundbreaking research and its inventions and designs, including first-hand insights from those who worked there.

From the First Gulf War in Iraq to the ongoing war in Afganistan the British Army has undergone massive changes in everything from mission capabilities to equipment.
Fully illustrated and written by an insider, this engaging book traces the major transformations in British Army doctrine, organization, structures, units, uniforms and equipment, from the end of the Cold War in the 1990s up to today. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, the British Army has undergone deep and widespread changes, including the creation of new units and capabilities, as well as cuts and amalgamations. It has digested these changes while simultaneously fighting in two major expeditionary wars (one of them ongoing) and in several lesser overseas deployments. While small by superpower standards, it continues to "punch above its weight," and is unquestionably the most experienced (indeed, virtually the only experienced) fighting force in Europe. It remains the only NATO ally which the USA can rely on to contribute significant combat forces for expeditionary campaigns.

Historian Gavin K. Watt offers a fresh interpretation of the 1775 Invasion of Canada. In 1775, Governor Guy Carleton returned to Canada after a four-year absence in England to discover that political unrest in the American colonies was at a fever pitch. Soon after, open warfare erupted in Massachusetts, quickly followed by a rebel invasion. Historian Gavin K. Watt explores the first two campaigns of the American Revolution through their impact on Canada and describes how a motley group of militia, American loyalists, and British regulars managed to defend Quebec and repel the invaders.

In the first full biography of Lieutenant General John McAllister Schofield (1831-1906), Donald B. Connelly examines the career of one of the leading commanders in the western theater during the Civil War. In doing so, Connelly illuminates the role of politics in the formulation of military policy, during both war and peace, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Connelly relates how Schofield, as a department commander during the war, had to cope with contending political factions that sought to shape military and civil policies. Following the war, Schofield occupied every senior position in the army--including secretary of war and commanding general of the army--and became a leading champion of army reform and professionalism. He was the first senior officer to recognize that professionalism would come not from the separation of politics and the military but from the army's accommodation of politics and the often contentious American constitutional system. Seen through the lens of Schofield's extensive military career, the history of American civil-military relations has seldom involved conflict between the military and civil authority, Connelly argues. The central question has never been whether to have civilian control but rather which civilians have a say in the formulation and execution of policy.

This excellent study was commissioned by the U.S. Marine Corps from the distinguished academic and military historian Russel Stolfi. This groundbreaking work is more than just a Divisional history. The whole basis of Rommel's exceptional handling is summed up in Stolfi's masterful conclusion 'Rommel had a bias for action.' The book traces the actions of the 7th 'Ghost' division in France during 1940 and the early part of the campaign in Russia during 1941. This powerful work brilliantly illustrates Stolfi's commanding insight into the genius of Rommel as a Divisional commander. Long out of print, this new edition brings back into circulation a classic piece of military history writing for a new audience.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain's manpower crisis forced them to turn to a previously untapped resource: women. For years it was thought women would be incapable of serving in uniform, but the ATS was to prove everyone wrong. Formed in 1938, the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service was a remarkable legion of women; this is their story. They took over many roles, releasing servicemen for front-line duties. ATS members worked alongside anti-aircraft gunners as 'gunner-girls', maintained vehicles, drove supply trucks, operated as telephonists in France, re-fused live ammunition, provided logistical support in army supply depots and employed specialist skills from Bletchley to General Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims. They were even among the last military personnel to be evacuated from Dunkirk. They grasped their new-found opportunities for education, higher wages, skilled employment and a different future from the domestic role of their mothers. They earned the respect and admiration of their male counterparts and carved out a new future for women in Britain. They showed great skill and courage, with famous members including the young Princess Elizabeth (now about to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee as Britain's Queen) and Mary Churchill, Sir Winston's daughter. Girls in Khaki reveals their extraordinary achievements, romances, heartbreaks and determination through their own words and never-before published photographs.